howd you get so rich

Rob Mariano has played his best game -- even if he does say so himself -- but is it enough to finally get him an elusive win? The Survivor three-hour finale airs tonight. The first two hours are, as always, on the island. Then Jeff and his blue shirt will travel through time to a live studio audience where the winner will be announced. I'm eager to see if Rob can keep control of the game right up to the bitter end. If so, the final three should be Phillip, Rob and Natalie. In any other season, I'd be rooting for Grant, the nice guy who's been strong in challenges, strategic in his voting and alliances and wears dirty dreadlocks well. But I love me some Boston Rob, so I'm rooting for him all the way.

Host Joan Rivers returns for the second season of 'How'd You Get So Rich' (Wed., 10PM ET on TV Land). The show explores the lives of self-made millionaires. On the premiere episode, Rivers goes to Austin, Texas, where she visits John Paul DeJoria. A former gang member, DeJoria was living in his car in 1980 when he teamed up with Paul Mitchell. The pair created the Paul Mitchell hair product line and made, well, a lot of money. In fact, DeJoria is currently worth about 4 billion dollars.

DeJoria is now married to a former 'Playboy' model and owns 11 houses. One of his homes is a sprawling hundred acre ranch in Texas. He uses the ranch as a wildlife preserve to help endangered animals. There are 135 animals from 12 different species on his estate.

Rivers tours the ranch, and wants to know if she can walk around with the animals. Unfortunately, DeJoria informs her that they are still "wild animals," and are fairly dangerous. Too bad. Seeing Rivers hang out with some Wildebeests would have been interesting, to say the least.

TV Land has a little gem on their hands, methinks with How'd You Get So Rich? When I was younger, I used to get a kick out of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. When your mother comes in and asks you which utility you want the most this month, it's kind of nice to imagine what it would be like to live in such opulence.

Joan Rivers was on Late Night earlier this week, and she spoke of the idea behind the show. When traveling around the country, she'd see these mansions scattered around and wonder what the story is behind them. These aren't celebrities, after all. They're just ordinary people. So the title question came to mind.

What's great about the show is that it's presented in such an uplifting way. It's telling you that all things are possible. You too could have these amazing houses and cars. All it takes is hard work and dedication, and sometimes a great idea like tonight's founder of Billy Bob Teeth.

This show actually isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it's fluffy and you'll forget about it the day after you see it, and I doubt I'll watch it again. But it's good to see a hidden camera show that goes out of its way to help an unsuspecting person instead of embarrassing/fooling/arresting them.

So I was watching TheAndy Griffith Show marathon that TV Land seems to air every other day. This isn't my complaint, as I would watch that show every day of the week (as long as they're the black and white episodes and not the color ones, but that's another rant). No, my complaint is about the commercial that ran during the marathon.

The promo isn't online so I'll have to describe it. The narrator talks about how times change (with a montage of how phones have evolved over the years), how tastes change (a montage of different foods that people have eaten over the decades), and how we've changed (a montage of different hairstyles you might have had since you were a kid). The point of all this is that things change, but ... change is good! And that's why it's good that TV Land has a bunch of reality shows instead of classic TV shows, because things change and that's where viewers are now in their lives.

We kid, of course, because you can't pick up a celeb magazine or surf a gossip blog without learning more than you want to about the new love life of big daddy Jon.

But after a five-week hiatus that was sparked by the Gosselins' separation, we finally get a peek at how the rest of the fam is doing, as Kate takes the kiddies and heads to the beach, while the Ed Hardy-wearin' paterfamilias stays home to supervise kitchen at the family home.

I had the great honor of interviewing the legendary Joan Rivers after her TCA panel promoting her new TV Land show How'd You Get So Rich? While the panel was hilarious, Joan was in fine form during the interview, telling me a good story about why she doesn't dwell in the past, criticizing Sarah Palin and Brooke Shields, and giving her one-millionth rebuke of her Apprentice rival, Annie Duke, or "Annie Douche" as she called the poker star during the panel.

But Rivers also took some vicious shots at David Tutera, the party planner who left her and Duke high and dry on The Celebrity Apprentice's finale, quitting after Joan asked him to make some changes to his plan. Since Tutera is scheduled to do a panel on his show My Fair Wedding on Friday, I wanted to post what she said about him here and then give Tutera a chance to respond.

Here come the brides and grooms, Mark Burnett style. The Emmy-winning 'Survivor' producer's latest show, 'Wedding Day' (June 16, 8PM ET, TNT), gives a chance at a dream wedding to 10 deserving couples -- including a bride who survived a near-fatal car crash, Army captains flown back from Iraq to say "I do" and a pair of LAPD officers with commendations for their community work.

Burnett, who'll receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later this year, will reunite with 'Celebrity Apprentice' winner Joan Rivers on the upcoming TV Land reality show 'How'd You Get So Rich?' (August 6, 9PM ET). He talked to AOL TV about his new shows, why Joan Rivers is his role model and whether we'll ever see a season of 'Celebrity Survivor.' -- By Kimberly Potts